Emergency telecommunications preparedness: Return on investments model

This brief presents a return on investment (ROI) model presented which aims to quantify and qualify the benefits of investments in emergency telecommunications preparedness, particularly in terms of: Enabling processes and approaches that can reduce the impact of disasters; improving the qualitative and quantitative analyses that feed into post-disaster assessment; facilitating interoperable and continuous communications in support of disaster response and recovery efforts; and of response and recovery efforts. This evidence-based model seeks to inform the decision-making of donors, government departments and other humanitarian actors, helping them to identify priority pre-emptive emergency telecommunication investments.

The brief determines that the ROI model provides a robust evidence-based approach to demonstrate that emergency telecommunications preparedness investments effectively reduce the devastating impacts of disasters on human lives, infrastructure, and the economy. The model also demonstrates that it is prudent to invest in pre-disaster emergency telecommunications preparedness. It can also be adapted to compute the rate of return on investment in other sectors of emergency preparedness such as power and transportation.